Here are all the records Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings movies broke, and which ones they still hold currently. Plans to translate J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth fantasy epic from the page to the screen had been afoot for the better part of the 20th century, with animated efforts failing to capture the grandeur and scale of the classic novels and a Beatles-fronted adaptation planned but never made. It wasn’t until Peter Jackson got his hands on the project that a serious attempt at making a live-action, cinematic retelling of Frodo’s journey began to look like a reality, albeit a hugely ambitious one.
The Lord of the Rings trilogy was a monumental success. Critically revered box office behemoths, each installment pushed the boundaries of filmmaking in terms of special effects, motion capture, battle sequences and the creation of an immersive fantasy world. As such, it’s not surprising that The Lord of the Rings broke a number of records on its way to Mount Doom. From behind-the-scenes production achievements to box office accolades and award ceremony honors, The Lord of the Rings rewrote the record books faster than Shadowfax skimmed the plains of Rohan.
It’s now been nearly 20 years since The Return of the King hit theaters, and Jackson’s influence has permeated throughout mainstream cinema. With this in mind, how many of those broken records can Middle-earth still lay claim to in 2020?
The Lord Of The Rings Franchise Records
Given the mammoth 3-film undertaking that was The Lord of the Rings, it’s to be expected that some of Frodo’s record-breaking achievements belong to the series as a whole, rather than any single installment. Between The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, Peter Jackon’s 6 movies represent the most awarded film series in history, winning 475 gongs out of 800 nominations across all ceremonies. However, it’s the Oscars that represent the pinnacle of cinematic achievement, and Middle-earth had a major influence on the Academy’s record books. Taking all 6 films into account once again, Jackson’s epic series still holds the highest amount of Oscar awards and nominations for a film series, winning 17 out of 37.
Getting more specific, visual effects were obviously a major factor in every Lord of the Rings movie, and the academy recognized this, awarding every film in the first trilogy the Best Visual Effects statuette, meaning the series holds the most consecutive visual effects Oscar wins thanks to Jim Rygiel and Randall William Cook. Famously, Peter Jackson turned New Zealand into Middle-earth for his movies, which ties The Fellowship of the Ring with Shakespeare in Love for the most nominations received by a film produced at least partially by non-Americans.
Each The Lord of the Rings release improved upon the box office of its predecessor, and the three films became the highest grossing movie trilogy of all time by beating the original Star Wars trilogy, and remaining so in 2020.
Away from the glitz and glamour of awards season, The Lord of the Rings boasted a record-breaking production, and is listed by Guinness as still holding the world record for largest battle sequences on film, with 200,000 fighting characters. The Guinness Book of World Records also recognizes The Lord of the Rings for burning through 1,800 Hobbit feet props during filming.
The Fellowship Of The Ring & The Two Towers
The debut Lord of the Rings movie was the first film to use a digital database that stored every single frame, ready to be digitally enhanced. One would assume this is now commonplace. Another idea that was novel in 2000 but is now taken for granted is the online trailer release, and the promotional clip for The Fellowship of the Ring was the most downloaded trailer in April 2000, passing Star Wars: The Phantom Menace with 1.7 million downloads in the first 24 hours. With faster internet speeds and YouTube, this has since been eclipsed.
The Fellowship continued to break records post-theatrical release, especially in the UK, where one day home media sales hit 1.27 million copies sold, beating the 1.25 record managed by the first Harry Potter film, however, this number would later be eclipsed by Mamma Mia!
Compared to the two films sandwiching it, The Two Towers broke less ground, but the records it did topple were considerable ones. With The Two Towers and The Return of the King filmed back-to-back, Peter Jackson’s series boasted the longest film shoot, lasting 274 days over 16 months, equaling the record set by 1979’s Apocalypse Now. Speaking of lengthy filmmaking, The Two Towers contained the longest battle scene in film with the Battle of Helm’s Deep. This record has since been stolen by Game of Thrones, with almost all of the 82-minute “The Long Night” comprising a single battle, compared to the 40-minute Helm’s Deep scrap. The middle chapter of Tolkien’s magnum opus was the highest grossing film of 2002.
Back in the day when renting films was still a thing, The Two Towers beat The Bourne Identity by grossing $22.89 million in video rentals in its opening five days of release. In a somewhat more esoteric accolade, The Two Towers became the only film in Swiss history to enter the country’s top 5 while only showing in open-air screenings in 2003.
The Return Of The King
Of all the Lord of the Rings movies, The Return of the King was the real record breaker of the trilogy, and attained the most quantifiable success. Tied with Titanic and Ben-Hur, The Return of the King holds the coveted record for the most Oscar wins, with 11 gongs after following a significant “for your consideration” campaign. Arguably even more impressive, The Return of the King alone retains the record for the biggest Oscar clean sweep, finding success in each of the 11 categories it was nominated. In terms of breaking new ground, The Return of the King was the first ever fantasy film to win the Best Picture Oscar; only The Shape of Water has managed to repeat the trick since.
The Return of the King was the most lucrative of Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies, and was comfortably the highest grossing film of 2003 with $1,120,929,521, beating Pixar’s Finding Nemo. The final chapter of the original trilogy broke a string of other box office records, and snared the strongest Wednesday in US history with $34.5 million, beaten by Spider-Man 2 the following year. The Fellowship’s final adventure broke records for Christmas Day and Boxing Day takings, and attained the highest December opening weekend. These achievements were topped by Meet The Fockers and I Am Legend, respectively. Needless to say, after so much cinematic success, The Return of the King became New Line Cinema’s highest grossing release and remains so today. Outside of the U.S., The Return of the King broke the opening-weekend record, and set new single-day records in 13 separate territories.
In production terms, the trilogy’s concluding installment supposedly includes the biggest prop in movie history - the dead Mûmakil seen lying on the battlefield.
The Hobbit
Generally speaking, the Hobbit movies are considered to be inferior to Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but that didn’t stop them attaining similar levels of financial success and breaking a few records along the way. The first chapter, An Unexpected Journey, grossed strongly in its opening weekend, setting a December record in the U.S. and outpacing both its predecessors and I Am Legend, which had taken the title from The Return of the King. 4 separate Star Wars titles have since scuppered poor Bilbo.
The first Hobbit movie beat Avatar for the December midnight grossing record and topped The Return of the King for the best December opening day. While the sequels wouldn’t prove quite so profitable, The Battle of Five Armies earned Warner Bros. their best opening weekend in China and various other territories.
Even though Peter Jackson was afforded far less time on The Hobbit than he was The Lord of the Rings, Hobbiton has the honor of being the biggest movie set ever built at approximately 522,720 squared feet - essentially a small village.
More: Lord Of The Rings: All FIVE Of Gandalf’s Staffs (& When They Appear)
